Eyal Zamir, the chief of staff of the Israeli military, visited IDF-occupied Gaza on Wednesday and vowed that Israeli troops would continue “operating proactively” as Israeli shelling and gunfire were reported across the Strip.
“We have significantly weakened [Hamas] and changed the security reality,” Zamir said, according to The Times of Israel. “The IDF will continue to operate proactively. We will not allow a threat to emerge on our borders as we experienced on October 7.”
His visit came nearly one week after President Trump and the so-called “Board of Peace” announced that Hamas agreed to a disarmament deal, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Israel didn’t accept the agreement, despite Hamas remaining in Gaza as an armed group being the pretext for Israel’s continued occupation and attacks.
After the announcement of the deal, Israel escalated its attacks in Gaza, killing dozens of Palestinians over the weekend, including multiple children. In recent days, the attacks appeared to have slowed down, and while the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported Israeli military activity across Gaza on Wednesday, there were no reports of casualties.
The last known Israeli killings in Gaza took place on Monday night, when an Israeli strike hit Gaza City, killing two Palestinians. Palestinians are still dying, though, as Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Wednesday that two people died of wounds sustained by previous Israeli attacks and that two bodies were recovered from the rubble over the previous 24-hour period.
The ministry said that since the so-called ceasefire deal was signed in October 2025, the IDF has killed 1,254 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 4,121. The IDF has also violated the agreement by taking more territory in Gaza, now controlling about 70% of the Strip, significantly more than the 53% it occupied following the signing of the ceasefire deal.
